Game 7: History in the Making

Following the trend of many closeout game 6 opportunities which the Celtics have encountered during the Big Three era, Thursday night’s game in Boston featured a similar outcome as the Celtics showed little heart and as a result were blown out by LeBron James and the Miami Heat.  LeBron lovers and haters alike must agree that LeBron played phenomenally throughout the entire night, and his 45 point, 15 rebound, and 5 assist performance can easily be heralded as the greatest playoff game of his career thus far.  LeBron was undeniably and scarily dominant, and the look on his face said it all: he was in the zone and no one would stop him.

On the other hand, the Celtics failed to respond, and the Boston crowd and players alike were lulled to sleep by James’s barrage of contested jumpers and powerful drives to the hoop.  The Celtics seemed like they gave up early, and apparently forgot that it is still entirely possible to win a game even if the other team’s star scores upwards of 40 points.  Nevertheless, you can be sure that this won’t happen again next game, and that both Boston and Miami will show up to battle with their backs against the wall in a Game 7 that will surely be a clash of the titans.

There is so much on the line for both teams.  Between the perpetual media scrutiny that LeBron, Spoelstra, and the Heat must constantly face, and the potential last game and last opportunity to win a championship for Boston’s Big Three era, Game 7 will be less like Paul Pierce’s analogy of a "good old, classic bar fight," and more like an all-out war.  The last game of this epic series, along with Games 2,4,5, and 6 will likely all be shown rather frequently on ESPN Classic someday for their respective implications and storylines.  The "Let's Go Celtics" chant that emerged from the Boston crowd despite a 20 point deficit in the final minutes of last night’s game was incredibly emotional, and will likely give the Celtics some extra fuel for their trip down to Miami.  The players and coaches know that America will be watching, and expecting 100% effort from everybody on the floor.

The Oklahoma City Thunder will also be watching, waiting, to see if the Conference Finals eerily similar to their own against San Antonio will feature a team that wins with athletic superiority and a freak of nature MVP small forward, or with experience from an older defensive-minded veteran squad led by topnotch coaching and a superstar point guard.  This year’s playoffs have featured countless epic games, and so many stellar performances from young and old squads alike.  

We have seen 23 year old Kevin Durant and his Thunder come of age, becoming the first team from the West in 14 years to make it to the NBA Finals not named the Spurs, Lakers, or Mavericks while defeating all three on the way there.  We have seen the #1 seeded Chicago Bulls ousted by #8 seeded Philadelphia.  We have seen the LA Clippers make an identity for themselves in the West, now known as “Lob City” and not just that “other team” from Los Angeles.  We have seen Rajon Rondo mature before our eyes and take the reigns of the Celtics’ franchise, still not a member of the Big Three, but rather the leader of them.  We have seen LeBron James silence his critics.  We should all feel privileged to watch this series and Game 7 tomorrow night, as we will be watching all-star players, hall of famers, and an MVP battle it out in a game that is so much more than just a game.  We will be watching history in the making.

Scared of a Little Thunder

Last night, the most athletic team in the NBA and my preseason pick to win the NBA finals knocked off the heavily favored San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals, winning their fourth straight game to finish out the series 4-2 while storming back from an 18 point deficit.  The Oklahoma City Thunder combine a distinctive mix of incredible athleticism and basketball talent, led by superstar Kevin Durant, along with great coaching and sound strategy provided by coach Scott Brooks.  The Thunder look essentially unstoppable right now, and are poised to win their first championship since moving from Seattle.  While one can argue that they look very similar to the Miami Heat on paper, the Thunder are much more well-rounded, and I do not think that they can be stopped.

Durant has won three consecutive scoring titles, thus proving that he is in fact the best scorer in the NBA… however he is not the only reason that the Thunder are so dominant.  While they were largely dismissed because of their youth and inexperience, they have shown great maturity and growth while rapidly developing into a star-studded team with composure and maturity under Brooks.  While Durant’s scoring is off the charts (just under 28 PPG in the playoffs), OKC’s mentality focuses on team play and winning, and their chemistry is far better than that of Miami, who consistently show an inability to close out their close games and a lack of trust in their head coach.

Furthermore, OKC’s point guard tandem of Russell Westbrook, a young and explosive slashing scorer, and Derek Fisher, a veteran facilitator who knows just what it takes to win big games while essentially only scoring in dagger situations, takes much of the pressure off Durant.  Simultaneously, these other weapons enable Durant to frequently take over certain stretches of the game, since he is not the only guy who can put up points that opponents must worry about.  Lately, these stretches have been coming in the fourth quarter, and at age 23, Durant is showing that he has the ability to be one of the most clutch big time scorers that the NBA has seen.  You also cannot forget about James Harden, another big time scorer and the third member of their big three along with Durant and Westbrook, who took home the coveted Sixth Man of the year award, and has been chipping in over 17 points per game in the postseason coming off the bench.  

Lastly, OKC has a pair of monsters in the paint in Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka, arguably the best defensive front court which features an on-ball defender in Perkins who can body up with the best centers in the league, and an incredible help defender in Ibaka who led the league in blocks both in the regular season and in the playoffs.  They are not struggling to have a defensive paint presence, as opposed to Miami who has none at all.  Bad news for OKC’s opponents: Ibaka’s offense has been coming around as well, and as the Spurs found out in Game 4, he too has become a legitimate scoring threat.

The Thunder were largely overlooked going into the conference finals, and after ending the Spurs’ 20 game winning streak and winning four straight to finish out the series, they will enter the NBA Finals hungry for a championship.  They combine incredible athletic ability both in the paint and on the perimeter with great coaching under former and likely future coach of the year in Scott Brooks, and if the Celtics can close out their series against Miami, their own storied Big Three era will be in serious danger of falling one series short of their second championship. 

Chris Bosh Returns: The Man or the Myth

On Tuesday night, Chris Bosh returned from the abdominal injury that had sidelined him from the Miami Heat’s last nine playoff games.  Bosh came off the bench, and logged 9 points and 7 rebounds in just 14 minutes of limited playing time.  However, for the third game in a row, the Heat came up short against the resilient veteran Boston Celtics, dropping Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals 94-90.

While the general consensus from ESPN’s analysts seems to be that coach Erik Spoelstra did not play Bosh enough in his first game back, keeping him out of the game for the entire fourth quarter may have actually been one of the better coaching moves he has made over the past three games.  The truth is that Bosh’s impact on the game was a negative one for Miami, and while he still may be playing injured, his lack of defensive presence last night only added insult to injury.

As the head coach, Spoelstra’s job is to put a winning lineup on the floor.  He is not concerned with players’ individual stats, nor most analysts’ naïve obsession with those stats.  Nevertheless, there was one statistic which Spoelstra could not neglect when it came to choosing his lineup down the stretch, and that was the team-low plus/minus rating of -12 for Chris Bosh last night.

Bosh scored all 9 of his points, while pulling down 6 out of his 7 rebounds during the 10 minutes he played in the first half.  He later returned to the lineup with just under 4 minutes to go in the third, playing until the end of the quarter while grabbing just one rebound, and then was sidelined for the rest of the night.  Bosh says he felt healthy enough to keep contributing, but there is good reason for why Spoelstra apparently did not feel that those contributions were very beneficial.

Bosh exerted little to no effort on defense last night, and only appeared to have any energy at all while on offense.  Rondo was not able to effectively penetrate until Bosh’s early minutes, and while the Celtics could not really capitalize on Bosh’s pitiable defensive presence in the first half, Bosh’s return to the lineup in the third sparked an 11-0 run for Boston to finish out the quarter, while jumping out to a 5 point lead.  Kevin Garnett absolutely dominated Bosh in the paint during that time, and even rookie big man Greg Stiemsma was able to contribute down low while Bosh was playing.

Both of these teams pride themselves on tough lockdown defense, so it is no wonder that Spoelstra felt more comfortable finishing out the game without the big man whose defensive presence was virtually nonexistent.  As aforementioned, Bosh only exerted energy on the offensive end, which also explains why 6 out of his 7 rebounds came as offensive boards.  Every time the Celtics missed a shot, Bosh was nowhere to be found, and the Heat were forced to rely on non-big men to pull down the defensive rebounds.

 For Bosh to be effective in this series, he needs to contribute much more than just an ability to score.  The dynamic duo of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade have shown that they can carry the team’s scoring load, and the more shots that Bosh takes, the less shots that they take.  On the offensive end, James dominated in the first half, while Wade was their go-to scorer down the stretch.  Coach Doc Rivers felt that the Celtics merely had to weather the storm until their defensive consistency paid off, and Bosh’s lack of a positive impact helped them to do so, while they simultaneously increased their scoring output in each quarter due to big defensive stops.  While many seem to agree that the Heat could have won if Bosh had played more than 14 minutes, it seems to me that the head coaches are the only ones who were really watching the game.